Clean or renewable energy generation systems exploit the natural forces of water (i.e., hydroelectric, tidal and wave), geothermal, sun and wind to generate electricity in a way that intends to cause little or no adverse impact to the surrounding environment. Present approaches to clean/renewable energy have not met with widespread or long term adoption. Fewer dams are being built for generating hydroelectric power due to the lack of suitable sites and ecosystem concerns, and while solar power technologies have shown promise, they remain costly when compared to the costs of electricity produced by fossil fuels (i.e., oil, natural gas, and coal). Wind power technologies, likewise, have to this point been too costly to foster widespread adoption. An additional hindrance to the acceptance of wind power is the aesthetic impact of large-scale wind turbines on the surrounding landscape, which often leads to popular resistance when such turbines are suggested for installation in or near residential areas.
Power generated by wind turbines is the most highly developed of the renewable resource energy capture and conversion technologies. Wind turbines are typically located several hundred feet in the air to take advantage of the relatively higher wind velocities that exist at higher altitudes where the lower level effects of the boundary layer—the portion of the atmosphere near the earth's surface where wind speed is retarded by frictional forces—are reduced or eliminated. The placement of wind turbines at high heights is also a logical choice because wind shear, or the change in wind speed with height, intensifies as the height above the ground increases.
Nonetheless, a large amount of useable wind energy (i.e., energy that can be converted into electrical power) resides within the lower levels of the boundary layer down to the surface or interfacial sublayer of the earth. One need only observe the movement of grass blades or reeds in the breeze to realize that substantial energy is available for conversion.
It would be desirable to provide a power generation system that can efficiently capture ground-level wind energy and convert it to electricity. It would also be desirable to provide a power generation system that has minimal aesthetic impact on the surrounding environment. It would further be desirable to provide small wind power generators each having a very small form factor to enable the fabrication of a vast generator grid that could be formed to resemble fields of grass, reeds, etc.